A POLITICAL FICTION FOR THE THEATRE

SUBJECT-MATTER

The drama describes a tragic incident that took place during the black July that was resulted from the LTTE operations in Jaffna. Thirteen soldiers were killed by the LTTE in Jaffna in the month of July in 1983. As a result the provoked thugs in Colombo started a riot in the city and launched a great massacre of the Tamil civilians.

MAIN THEME

Naturalization – People of various races and different cultures should be mixed together with friendship and cooperation.

SUB THEMES

∙ Racism is baseless.

∙ Friendship surpasses divisions.

∙ For a problem to be solved it should be discussed directly.

LANGUAGE - simple but conversational language

INTRODUCTION

Rasanayagam is a Tamil person from Jaffna. Philip Fernando is a Sinhalese person living in Colombo. Both are close friends as from their university life. Philip is married to a Tamil lady called Sita. Philip and Sita belong to the Colombo middle class and Rasanayagam’s origin is in Jaffna. They experienced several anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka. During all these periods Philip supplied shelter to Rasanayagam.

The July of 1983 is a black spot in Sri Lanka. The political thugs in Colombo launched a great massacre and violence upon the civilian Tamils in Colombo. This drama opens out in that background. Rasanayagam escaped the mob’s attack on many occasions through his correct pronunciation of Sinhalese words. But he chose to reveal his identity during the ’83 riots at the cost of his life. Macintyre deplores the Sri Lankan English educated middle classes of both communities who insulated themselves from the ground reality and the build

up of tensions since independence. He also exposes the close affinity between the upper middle classes of both ethnic groups and observes how while earlier generation of leaders were all part of the elite, the newer generation of Tamil came from the grass root level.

THE STORY

Rasanayagam studied at Peradeniya University with Philip Fernando and the present Colombo D.I.G. Philip is married to Sita who is a Tamil lady. Philip and Sita belong to the middle class and they live in Wellawatte in Colombo.

Rasanaygam comes to Philip’s house during the racial riot which is called the black July. He had experienced several anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka. Every riot provided an opportunity for these old friends to socialize and go on a drinking spree during the curfew hours. Between 1956 and 1983 there were at least six major race riots and Philip gave refuge to Rasanaygam

on all these occasions, protecting him from mobs bent on violence. Strangely, during these ‘get-togethers’ both of them discussed every topic except the reasons underlying the conflict, a sensitive issue they discreetly avoided.

A similar relationship prevailed between Phillip and Sita, a westernized Tamil woman who is married to him. Macintyre also uses marriage as an analogy here to describe the relationship between Sinhalese and Tamils who have lived in one country, Sri Lanka, which both have inherited over the centuries - two peoples who despite complex differences have subsisted together.

This time Philip and Sita decided to leave the country and go to Australia since they reckoned this time the situation would be too crucial. But they were waiting for their friend, Rasanayagam as usual, coming seeking their protection. He arrived in the place in time. In the first scene of the drama they are preparing to go to Australia as the anti-Tamil racism is at a high point in July in 1983 which was later called the black July. In the meantime they are expecting Rasanayagam who is seeking their shelter from the Sinhalese racist rioters. We can hear an argument between Philip and Sita. Sita says that there should be a face to face discussion over the ethnic problem and blames Philip that he just spends time with Rasa taking drinks.

While they are talking Rasa enters. And they start chatting. But they hear the noises of the rioters in the street. Meanwhile their friend, the Colombo D.I.G gives them a call and warns them about the dangerous situation of the area. He advises Philip to send Rasa out for his protection.

Philip is sure that Rasa can defend as he faced several riotous situations and could save himself. Philip had taught him to pronounce the Sinhalese word, baldiya which means bucket during the rag season at the university. But this time Rasa could not pronounce the word correctly so he was killed by the rioters in the street.

GUIDELINES TO APPRECIATION

The character, Rasa portrays as a victim of the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. Justify your answer relating to the drama Rasanayagam’s riot.

i. Ragging on the campus

ii. Every time a riot breaks out Rasanayagam is protected by Philip.

iii. The rioters demand Rasanayagam to pronounce the bucket; he failed and was killed.

i. At university Rasa is ragged by the seniors. On this occasion Philip offers to help him by teaching him to pronounce the word; ‘baaldhiya.’ This shows how Tamil people are victimized to harassing because of the language problem.

ii. There were several anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka. In all these violent situations Philip offers to help Rasa save his life by giving him shelter in his house. So Tamil people like Rasa are victimized to violent harassment.

iii. Once again in the latest racist violence Rasa is victimized to the same language problem. The rioters force Rasa to pronounce the word; ‘baaldhiya’. This time he fails and is killed by the rioters. This time also Rasa represents the Tamil victimization to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

RASANAYAGAM’S LAST RIOT

There's no great tradition in Sri Lanka of plays having scripts in English, reflecting local society, passed to posterity in printed form. In most instances even getting hold of typescript pages of those old plays proves to be an inconceivable task. This is where VijithaYapa Publications, Colombo, deserves a word of praise for undertaking the task of offering the readers "Jaffna and Colombo" — a collection of three plays by two persons who enriched Sri Lankan English theatre. These are, "HE COMES FROM JAFFNA" by E.F.C. Ludowyk, the first Sri Lankan Professor of English, and two other plays, "RASANAYAGAM'S LAST RIOT" and "HE STILL COMES FROM JAFFNA", written by Ernest Macintyre, whose name has become synonymous with the Sri Lankan English theatre for the last fifty years.

The subtitle, "A century of relationships in three plays", suggests how the friendly relationship that existed between Sinhalese and Tamils deteriorated steadily between 1934, when Ludowyk wrote the play, and the turn of this century. These three plays trace the kaleidoscopic evolution of breakdown in race relations. Ludowyk, endowed with intelligence and great aesthetic sense in his dealings with humanity, rose above artificial frontiers. This explains how a person born in Galle, had his early education at Richmond College and in the twilight of his life wrote "THOSE LONG AFTERNOONS" — an autobiographical account of childhood in this town — should write a play where the man from the other end of the island, Jaffna turned out to be the title character. Ludowyk never claimed "He , comes from Jaffna" to be an original work as he based it on an , English script "A pair of spectacles" written by Sydney Grundy, which in turn was adapted from the French play Le Petit Oiseaux, by Eugene Labiche. A comparative study of "A pair of spectacles" with He comes from Jaffna" would lead one to believe Ludowyk kept tinkering with Grundy's script. However, it should be remembered that Ludowyk, just before his return from England in early 1930s, saw the performance of "A pair of spectacles" and on arrival cobbled together, "He comes from Jaffna", an adaptation of that.

This play should be seen as an adaptation written and directed by him merely to entertain the local audience. In his play all characters were locals saving for Marion, the second wife of Cleveland Rajaratnam. Ludowyk belonged to the Burgher community. The Burghers are said to be the descendants of inter-marriages between the Portuguese and Dutch and the locals. Through the character Isaacsz, the shoemaker, Ludowyk gives the audience a lesson in how the illiterate section of this community gave expression to their thoughts in English, without letting rules of grammar act as impediments.

"He comes from Jaffna" is a farce with a straight forward story meant for entertainment. Duraiswamipillai, the title character, is introduced as a parsimonious country bumpkin who proffered nothing free, except advice, who metamorphoses into a benevolent person just before the final fall of the curtain. The original script of this play has remained untouched since 1991. The reason for this may be as ShelaghGoonewardene in the introduction to "Jaffna and Colombo" puts it: "After the regrettable changes in the relationship between Tamils and Sinhalese from the early 1980s onwards the play was judged only from the jaundiced and misleading view that it reproduced derogatory stereotypes."

Ernest Macintyre, in an effort to prevent the play from going into oblivion, stepped in to revive it and in the process perpetuated the memory of Ludowyk for his invaluable contribution to the Sri Lankan theatre. Ernest Macintyre revived it in 2005 in Sydney, Australia. In directing the revived play Macintyre had to make certain changes to the original script in order to make it acceptable to the wider section of the Sri Lankan audience, a group he targeted. All interpolations and the other changes to the original script have been highlighted, in the book, in bold letters. In Ludowyk's production of the play, it's interesting to note that all the main characters remained Tamils while the cast were drawn from different communities. During the early days the role of the title character was played by P.C.Thambugalla and, following his death, by E.C.B. Wijesinghe. However, in the revived play Macintyre presents Ludowyk's characters, Thambipillai and his daughter, under the surname Fernando. This alteration makes all previous changes pale into insignificance and the director of the revised production may have felt it was imperative to take the play before an audience living in a milieu different from where Ludowyk lived. Only time can tell

"Rasanayagam's Last Riot", the second play in the book, deals with a period relatively different from the first half of last century, noted for the cordial relationships that existed between the Sinhalese and Tamils, in Sri Lanka. Rasanaygam, a Tamil from Jaffna, and Philip, his Sinhalese room-mate during the undergraduate days at Peradeniya, saw the frequent ethnic riots during the second half of the 20th century as a blessing in disguise. Every riot provided an opportunity to these old friends to socialize and go on a drinking spree during the curfew hours. Between 1956 and 1983 there were at least six major race riots and Philip gave refuge to Rasanaygam on all these occasions, shielding him from mobs hell bent on violence. Strangely, during these 'get-togethers' both of them discussed every topic under the sun except the reasons underlying the conflict, a sensitive issue they discreetly avoided.

Curiously, a similar relationship — not discussing this sensitive subject, prevailed between Phillip and Sita, a westernized Tamil woman who is married to him. ShelaghGoonewardene, explains the enigmatic relationship that existed between Sita and Phillip thus: " In the working of the play, Macintyre also uses marriage as an analogy to describe the relationship between Sinhalese and Tamils who have lived in one country, Sri Lanka, which both have inherited over the centuries -two peoples who despite complex differences have subsisted together just as two different individuals of equal complexity transcend characteristics unique to each in the bond of marriage." "Rasanayagam's Last Riot" is a skillfullycrafted , encompassing a three decade history, recounted by three characters. In 1990 when the play was staged at the Belvoir Theatre, Sydney, the role of Rasanayagam was played by Gandhi Macintyre, a well-known Sri Lankan professional actor, who had cut his teeth at the Drama Studio London.

The final play in the book is "He Still Comes from Jaffna" and anyone reading it cannot escape a strong sense of déjà vu. This play was first performed in 2000, almost a decade after the staging of "Rasanayagam's Last Riot" and 65 years after Ludowyk wrote the script for "He Comes from Jaffna". Relying on imagery and sardonic humour, Macintyre has strained every sinew to transform Ludowyk's man from Jaffna, every inch a zany conservative, "wearing a white turban....and carrying a bundle of drumsticks, a chembu, a bottle of gingelly oil and a tiffin carrier " into a person who would fit the stereotype of a 'Tamil terrorist.' Macintyre introduces his title character to the audience only in act two. In so doing he uses powerful visual images and has buttressed them with verbal images, as if to lift the sagging interest the audience might have experienced hitherto. The title character in "He Still Comes from Jaffna," Pathmanathan, is a young man in his late twenties, clad in jeans and shirt, clinging to a traveling bag, arriving from Toronto for the ostensible purpose of getting married to Maya, a sophisticated girl from Colombo.

Though Maya disapproved of arranged marriages, she reluctantly acquiesced to her parent's plans but only with the intention of using this lad from Toronto as 'raw material' for a novel she was writing. Pathmanathan's words and deeds betrayed the fact that he was there to execute a sinister plan. The play also touches a myriad of affairs which mattered to the local elite - like old school networks and getting illegal things done through highly influential friends thus transcending ethnic boundaries. In the play s unexpected denouement the Director lets Maya, who symbolizes a wider section of humanity unfettered by parochial ties, to resurrect from the dead Pathmanathan, who had succumbed to an injury caused by a bullet when the house was under siege by sharpshooters. "He still Comes from Jaffna" is seen as an ideal vehicle to unfurl serious messages in a lighter vein, while leaving the grey area between fact and fiction intact.

The three plays contained in "Jaffna and Colombo" are going to benefit students of English theatre in Sri Lanka enormously. The two men who wrote theplays contributed enormously to keep English theatre alive in this tiny island. Ludowyk, who died in 1985, while remaining

a full time academic, kept his interest in theatre alive. Whereas Ernest Macintyre, whose theatre involvement exceeds half a century in Sri Lanka, was associated with the Colombo based theatre company 'Stage and Set' and subsequently with the `Lionel Wendt Theatre.' In ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM THE THIRD WORLD, a book written two decades ago, Trevor James, in discussing the history of theatre in Sri Lanka, refers to Ernest Macintyre as "The most successful dramatist...However, since then he has written and directed more than half a dozen plays, touching issues related to his country of birth.

Post 'Last Riot'

Ernest Macintyre of Rasanayagam's 'last riot' fame is in town, and this has prompted some to ask tongue firmly in cheek, if this should also signify Rasanayagam's last election? The stereotypical era of putting Tamils and Sinhalese in conscious ethnic compartments is gone, and Rasanayagam is done rioting. Well, he is the one who gets caught up in riots, but you get the point.

The middle class Tamil is a shrinking species. This is a result of the long years of war which led those who had the means out of the country to join the annals of the 'diaspora' - which is of course a misnomer if ever there was one.

So it's not as if 'Rasanayagam's last riot' is a relic, Rasanayagam himself seems to be a ghost from the past. Now these Rasanayagams come with Canadian accents which even the cosmopolitan but ageing Macintyre himself is bound to find difficult to decipher.

They throw money all around the pubs in Colombo, and most don't visit Jaffna at all. If they do, there may have to be an accompanying guide to show them what a murunga looks like. That's how much the middle class has shrunk in the north and the east of the country, and this is in the main due to Prabhakaran's fratricidal war which left mostly the impoverished Tamils to eke out an existence from the soil, as the better to do brethren had all emplaned abroad.

There is of course a residual Tamil middle class which in the main finds its voice in Colombo, but these people are nothing like the Rasanayagams. They may be frugal to the extent that everybody has to be frugal in this economy, but in the main their politics being funded by the above mentioned moneyed diaspora, they are nothing like the Rasanayagams - because they take up positions that are, shall we say, a tad too loud considering their numbers.

So, there is hardly an organically active Tamil middle class in Sri Lanka, unless one can be created out of the war impoverished north and the east.

Though this is a distinct possibility, the Rasanayagam type of stereotypical Tamil middle clas yokel is definitely something that is a relic from the past, and someone that should be confine of an old halcyon are not necessarily chic. In the post war era, Tamils though they may be frugal are not so in the exhibitionist sense that's portrayed in Macs plays. Nowadays, the Tamil middle class or those that are aspiring, are connected more organically to the so called diaspora and this makes things different. So there is more Toronto masala in their aspirations than the Colombo based ambitions of Mac s , ' Rasanayagam. macIntyrets plays therefore are essentially a reminder of a historical era when the racial divide was defined in terms of crude and stereotypical jokes. That there is no place for this in the collective psyche of the Sinhala and Tamil nation is a sign that there is progress in terms of ethnic relations, In the main, ethnic relations between the Sinhala and Tamil middle classes are better than they have ever been before, as there is a common aspiration for contented sharing of whatever that's offered in a resurgent economy after years of impoverishing confrontation. This is progress. That there is no room for a Maclntyre to make his rather dirty and sick jokes in the glare of the public spotlight anymore about the idiosyncrasies of the Tamil Sinhala racial divide is a sign that the nation has come of age... This is not to say that Macintyre's museum piece plays should not be staged as historical pieces from a nastier era.

After all, there is theatre evocative of the Jim Crow era, and the dark days of the lynch mobs, that are essentially revelations of a historical Dark Age. But it is also important to revisit the psyche that allowed skits of the sort of Maclntyre's in any era.

There was no racial sensitivity in this proclivity, as the lampooning was essentially of a one way street variety. The foibles of the Tamil government servant type were laughed at in these accounts, but there was no parallel lampooning of the majority Sinhala middle class. In that way these plays were a blatant exploitation of self's own race by Maclntyre. That there was a great deal of raucous support for this kind of show of racial insensitivity at that time when the plays were staged is no excuse.

It is a strange and positive upshot of the war that this kind of stereotyping died with the fighting. The two races were joined in one unstated cause which was to get rid of the iron manacle of Prabhakaran's fascism.

Now there is an understanding that the middle classes Tamil and Sinhala both have a fight on their hands which is to make it in a resurgent economy that is though still struggling, alive with myriad possibilities. In this type of milieu, there is less room for the crass race-based identifications that are a hallmark of the Mac era dramas.

Nobody is chided for buying a watch 'when there are so many clock towers in Colombo" because smart phones and not watches are now aspirational symbols of both Tamils and Sinhalese. It is a brighter era therefore, and there is really a difficulty in finding delineating circumstances that would enable racist jokes purely Tamil on Tamil as in Macintyre's era, because those days are simply now gone.

There could be an entirely new set of jokes about how the scattered many in the so called diaspora come and throw money here, and how both the Tamil and Sinhala middle classes are sometimes amazed to the point of being offended by this tendency but then this is no laughing matter.

> But it is glad tidings that times have changed. The races in fact have come together and not been drawn apart, and this is in spite of the Macintyres of then and the Sumanthirans of now.